ChevronPhillips temporarily shuts down units at Cedar Bayou, more news

-ChevronPhillips Chemical on Tuesday shut down two polyethylene units at its Cedar Bayou facility in Texas due to a substation power failure. Via Platts, the units were slated to remain shut down until noon on Friday. The company reported visible flaring from the depressurizing process in a filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

-Surging oil production in the Eagle Ford shale and the Permian Basin has prompted Magellan Midstream Partners to make a big shift toward transporting crude oil, the San Antonio Business Journal reports. Magellan, which operates a 9,600-mile pipeline system that transports refined products, will spend 80% of its $950 million capital budget for 2014 and 2015 on projects to move crude oil.

-The EIA today reported that U.S. crude oil proved reserves reached a 37-year high at the beginning of 2013. Tight oil plays accounted for 22% of proved crude oil and lease condensate reserves in 2012. The 2012 annual crude oil reserves increase of 4.5 barrels was the largest since 1970.

-A group of 11 Senate Democrats today sent a letter to President Obama urging him to make a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline by May 31. “This process has been exhaustive in its time, breadth and scope,” the senators wrote. “It has already taken much longer than anyone can reasonably justify.” The letter insists that the project break ground before another construction season passes. The signatories included Senate Energy Committee Chairwoman Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.

-Chevron CEO John Watson said today at the National Association of Blacks in Energy conference the energy industry needs to make a larger effort to diversify its workforce. Via FuelFix, Watson noted projections showing blacks and Hispanics could fill one-third of all oil, gas and petrochemical jobs through 2030. API said recently blacks account for only 8% of jobs in those sectors at present.